Construction work of the apartment blocks along Princes Road has been suspended.
fijivillage News has received confirmation that the Suva City Council has directed the work to be stopped.
Members of the Tamavua Action Group who are residents in the Tamavua area continue to gather signatures to protest against the development close to the cliff edge of Princes Road which they say was approved in 2014 without proper public consultations and without an Environmental Impact Assessment.
A link of the petition is being widely circulated, and the petition will be presented to the Minister for Local Government, Maciu Nalumisa and Minister for Lands, Filimoni Vosarogo.
They are objecting to the planned construction of apartment blocks on Lot L-7, DP 5478 CT 21966 Princes Rd, which lies close to the cliff edge west of Princes Road.
The Tamavua Action Group says they understand that the approved plan involves building 6 apartment blocks on the lot - the first two, closest to the road were originally to be two storeys high; the second two, in the middle, three storeys high; and the final two closest to the cliff edge four storeys high.
The concerned group say they further understand that an amendment to the plan has recently been approved to allow the developer to add additional storeys to the apartment blocks.
fijivillage News has established that the developers are now building three storeys high apartment blocks for the first two, four storeys high for the middle two and four storeys high for the two closest to the cliff edge.
The Tamavua Action Group says this development was approved in 2014 without a public consultation which is a fundamental requirement in the Town and Country Planning Act.
They say this consultation would have provided residents of Tamavua with an opportunity to assess the nature of this major project and raise any objections that they might have had.
The concerned residents’ petition says the planning approval was granted without an Environmental lmpact Assessment. They say this is crucial as the development lies in an area with a well-documented history of geological instability.
They say specifically, it lies directly on an earthquake fault line.
The Tamavua Action Group says given the scale of this development, and the risks associated with it, they are petitioning the Government to suspend work on this development until a full EIA is undertaken.
They say it is important that the EIA contain a comprehensive geo-technical engineering assessment that is in sufficient detail to assure the public that the geo-hazard risks have been sufficiently analysed and addressed.
We have raised the questions with the Minister for Local Government, Maciu Nalumisa and Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Filimoni Vosarogo.
Questions have also been sent to the Director of Environment, Sandeep Singh, Suva City Council CEO, Azam Khan, the managers of the project and Investment Fiji.
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